The Wirraminna wonder

Bug watching at Wirraminna ... close, and fun.

Beautiful Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre at Burrumbuttock, some 30km north of Albury-Wodonga, has won yet another award.

Deputy Prime Minister Mr John Anderson has presented the centre and the 30-pupil Burrumbuttock Public School with a National Landcare Award for their contributions to the community project which is transforming a neglected town dam into a major environmental education centre with wetlands, acquatic walks, interpretive trails, visitors' centre, wattle garden, information area, barbecues and bird hide.

Wirraminna, on a 4ha site on a former stock reserve and public watering place featuring a large dam built by Chinese labourers in 1902, provides visitors with an impressive flora and fauna experience. Wirraminna's remnant vegetation of towering white and yellow box trees and red gums has been retained. Trees and shrubs indigenous to the area have been planted to restore the understorey.

Sections of Wirraminna are designated to show specific plant types, seasonal flowering plots, dye and craft plants, native grasses, windbreak design, smooth bark woodlands and more.

The ponds have been stocked with golden and silver perch.

Community and wider support for the project, which attracted Natural Heritage Trust funding, has been enormous. Burumbuttock people have freely given labour, skills and equipment.

Hume Shire gazetted the site as part of Burrumbuttock Recreation Ground, established a carpark and provided fresh water.

Labour, advice and support has come from West Hume Landcare Group.

Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd has sponsored a nelder, consisting of a wheel with 16 radiating spokes planted with different tree varieties. An octagonal gazebo features as the hub.

Burrumbuttock Public School is a keen supporter of the project and an outdoor teaching area has been constructed in Wirraminna. The school has initiated projects and a continuing program of environmental activities.

Charles Sturt University has completed a bat survey and a frog identification program is upcoming. Bird species are being counted by the Bird Atlas Society of Australia. There are some 30 nesting hollows for native fauna.

Activities planned for the future include education tours, farm trees, bird hides, bush heritage, water quality monitoring, and Aboriginal medicinal and food plants.